Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing debut novel!, January 24, 2009
Seaborn has taught me a valuable lesson: never underestimate Juno Books. For some reason I had assumed that Juno Books was a publisher of romance novels with a genre twist, but the reality is that Juno Books is not that much different from any other publisher of fantasy, except that they publish novels with strong female leads. And Seaborn certainly has a cast of strong female leads.
Seaborn follows Kassandra, the granddaughter of the current King of the Seaborn and the Wreath-wearer, a person of extraordinary power. King Tharsaleos is a murderer and Kassandra wants revenge not only for the House of Rexenor, but for her family as well. As she gears up for war, she has to learn to control her newfound power. Then there is Corina, a California native who loves to scuba dive, but unwittingly releases Aleximor, last of an ancient line of seaborn sorcerers with the power to control the dead who was imprisoned by the Seaborn royalty. The problem, however, is that Corina has released Aleximor within her, and he's taken over, imprisoning Corina within her own mind. And Aleximor is also on a path to revenge. When his path crosses with Kassandra's, will they work together and will they become enemies?
Chris Howard is someone I will be paying close attention to from this day forward. As a debut novel Seaborn succeeds where many others in the same class have not. It puts together a fascinating new world (within our own), drawing from Greek mythology and developing that into its own unique fantasy creation. Interesting too is that Howard has brought together two separate views of this fantasy world as a junction between the world as we know it and the world as Kassandra knows it. Corina is our outside connection, pulling us into the complexities and strangeness of theSeaborn as she is pulled into it. We are able to share our learning experience with her as her imprisonment draws her deeper into the Seaborn mythos.
Not all of Howard's novel is centered on worldbuilding, though. Seaborn is an action-packed fantasy thriller with a touch of the macabre. My expectation of the slightly flowery romantic fantasy (the literary romance, not the genre) was shattered by Howard's unrestrained presentation of the darker aspects of his world. Kassandra is not a perfect being with untold power; she's flawed and struggles against factors that might drive most of us insane. Aleximor , likewise, is a cunning, twisted individual whose passions for the macabre offer to the reader a gruesome (though not overboard) visual of death and reanimation. Corina, who is perhaps the most sympathetic character of the novel, is the odd-girl-out, being the only one who is "normal" by our standards. Her development throughout the novel keeps this fantasy world connected to ours (this feat is also maintained through Kassandra, who does interact with ussurfacers).
If it isn't obvious at this point, I enjoyed Seaborn a great deal. The novel isn't perfect, as most debuts never are. Some of the names can be a pain in the butt to pronounce. I assume they are based on Greek mythology of some sort and unfortunately my Greek mythology is wholly insignificant to have caught all the references. Also, the ending did feel a bit rushed to me, although perhaps that has more to do with the fact that I enjoy a lot of description for scenes involving battles and the like. Regardless, the novel kept me entertained from start to finish and even snatched me up in the first few pages, which is something a lot of novels have failed to do for me in recent years. Seaborn never felt like a chore and often times surprised me in its presentation--Kassandra, especially.
I look forward to reading more of Howard's work in the future. If Seaborn is what Howard can churn out as a debut, I suspect this may be the beginning of a long and fruitful writing career, with even greater novels finding their way into our libraries, personal and otherwise.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic book!, August 4, 2008
Seaborn is a riveting adventure story -- complete with underwater kingdoms, royal rivalries, familial betrayal, and epic battles -- but it's much more, too. It's a rich portrayal of two young women who, in different ways, find themselves in situations not of their choosing and have to use their smarts and strength to persevere. Corina's battle is literally over the ownership of her body - who's ultimately going to inhabit it? For her part, Kassandra's inherited a powerful legacy that, while it brings many gifts, is also fraught with responsibility and pain. The complexity of these women's characters and the beauty of the prose make this book a complete pleasure to read.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
(3.5) The devil and the deep blue sea?, August 2, 2008
_Seaborn_ is a unique fantasy; it's unlike anything else I've read. Chris Howard tells a compelling story of merpeople and of two women who struggle to become their own woman (or mermaid) in the face of opposition.
Our heroines are Corina Lairsey, a California girl who becomes possessed by a megalomaniacal merman while scuba-diving; and Lady Kassandra, an exiled princess of the Seaborn who is hatching a plan to overthrow her usurping grandfather. Howard does a great job with Corina's plight, vividly showing us Corina's terror at finding herself taken over by another being, her heartbreak and horror as her body is used to commit unspeakable acts of violence, and her struggle to free herself. Kassandra can be harder to get a grip on; her behavior and moods are a bit on the erratic side. There's a reason for that, though. Like Corina, Kassandra isn't alone in her head. She carries the voices of her ancestors within her, and their reactions occasionally land Kassandra in trouble. _Seaborn_ follows these two women as they try to seize control of their own lives.
Howard does a fine job of describing the beauty and danger of the sea, and the culture of the Seaborn. Their society is largely based upon ancient Greece, as is their magic. Chris Howard clearly knows a great deal about ancient Greek mythology and occultism. There's a certain satisfaction, to a mythology buff like me, in reading a novel by someone who knows who Melinoe is, and in getting out my books after finishing _Seaborn_ to see whether the character of Akaste is based on a real mythological figure. (Answer: She is.)
There are a few issues. There's a bit of head-hopping. I'm not talking about the shifting POV that Howard uses intentionally to show the battle for dominance inside Corina's head; that's done well. It's the random head-hopping that's the problem; for example, when the POV switches abruptly from Kassandra to a police officer.
Also, there's a fine line between "lush, descriptive prose" and "purple prose," and that line isn't in the same place for every reader. Some of the prose in _Seaborn_ went over my "thin purple line," though this was mainly in the first scene (which is also where the most obvious head-hop occurs). There's some good stuff in that scene too, though. I loved the image of all the pathways to the sea revealing themselves to Kassandra in an attempt to beckon her home. Elsewhere in _Seaborn_, the prose is evocative, and strange in a way that serves to highlight the alien nature of the Seaborn's realm. I could almost smell the sea.
The final issue is that, occasionally, a word or two of modern usage slips into the dialogue of characters who wouldn't be using it.
These small gripes aside, I thoroughly enjoyed _Seaborn_. As I mentioned before, it's unique, and never feels like a warmed-over version of anything else. It's for anyone who loves the sea, and anyone who likes stories about young women striving for independence and their own power.
Maps and family trees are available at Chris Howard's website. I only wish they'd been in the book!
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